News on Phoenix Road

Thank you to everyone for coming along to join in the activities at the Phoenix Road Play Day and helping to create a festive vibe. It was a wonderful opportunity to see how the plans could work in real life, experiencing playing and socialising in the street free of cars and visualising the space where a new pocket park is proposed.

The ‘milk float’ exhibition of emerging plans was very popular and hundreds of conversations with people keen to share local knowledge with the design team. The emerging plans can be viewed and your feedback is invited via the online survey.

There were many conversations with the Somers Town Space for Us (History Club) about Somers Town’s unique character and ways it can be reflected in the proposed changes to the street. Screen printing of Somers Town’s rich heritage inspired by Gilbert Bayes finials and inspirational quotes was very popular, as well as stencilling of these and other motifs to create colourful Somers Town picnic benches. The two picnic benches will be part of a trial to explore locations for seating and communal tables along Phoenix Road to inform the designs.

The Play Street was a spectacle with Assemble Play and Play in the Park taking over the street with children and families playing and crafting and creating throughout the day. A positive response was that people would like to do it again. Please get in touch if you are interested in organising a Play Street event in Somers Town.

The smoothie bike was as popular as ever, ‘Woven Together’ activities and story sharing, gardening advice and plant give away with Iverde, Somers Town in Bloom awards, and delicious food provided by Zad Café. Teas and coffees were provided by local cafes and many businesses made their toilets available for the day.

It was a collaborative effort of Somers Town volunteers and local organisations and businesses, A Space for Us, Story Garden, Camden officers and LDA Design.

The emerging plans are available to view and comments are invited throughout September 2021.